Just over a year ago, police officers from multiple Lake County communities banded to form the Lake Regional Traffic Crash Reconstruction Unit.

Under the guidance of Eastlake Police Lt. Robert Gonzalez, the new team was assembled to investigate serious and fatal crashes as well as those involving pedestrians, public safety vehicles, motorcycles or commercial vehicles.

But Gonzalez said the real goal is being able to provide some closure for family members of crash victims.

"We want to be able to answer any questions the family has," Gonzalez said.

Advertisement

The unit was originally comprised of officers from Eastlake, Kirtland Hills, Waite Hill, Wickliffe, Willoughby Hills and Willowick. In March, Mentor joined that list.

The addition of Mentor paid immediate dividends as the department purchased new electronic mapping tools worth more than $10,000 to better reconstruct high-impact crashes.

"When you're able to have something like that for crash investigation it's phenomenal," Gonzalez said.

Now, two more Lake County communities are in talks to join the unit, though Gonzalez declined to name them until their membership is official.

Officers involved in the unit report to a crash only if and when their municipal responsibilities allow them to do so. Gonzalez said participating communities have benefitted from the new team.

"Each investigator has a certain level of knowledge and we all have experience in different areas," he said. "When you bring that all together as a unit, we can do a better investigation of a crash than if any one of us did it alone."

Looking back at year one, Gonzalez said LakeCRU investigated nine serious or fatal crashes, or about one every six weeks.

The unit acts in an advisory role to the home agency and does not have the ability to make arrests. Even so, Gonzalez said the team's legal power is evident when called to testify in court.

"For the jury to be able to physically see how the crash occurred, I think it makes it easier for them to understand," he said.

LakeCRU is indicative of a growing national trend.

A 2011 report by the Major Cities Chiefs Association found that 70 percent of the country's largest police forces were in some way combining or consolidating emergency services.

In another portion of the county, the Lake County East Council of Governments recently came into existence in order to help fire departments in the towns of Madison, Perry, Painesville, Fairport Harbor, Grand River and Concord, Leroy, Madison, Painesville and Perry townships to purchase new, updated equipment that each of the departments can use.

Council Chairman Paul Malchesky said necessary items like a ladder truck and an air truck -- which refills firefighters' oxygen tanks -- are the type of tools the council is looking to buy.

"These are things that no department needs all the time, but that they all need every so often," he said.

Malchesky added that the council is also seeking funding sources that would otherwise be unavailable to the individual departments.

"We're also able to apply together for grants for studies or other matters," he said.